My wife's grandmothers each lived to 99+, and were quite active and fully engaged until just before their deaths. And by that I mean walking the dog, shopping, living at my inlaws' home, chatting with any and everyone who came by, etc. They were born in 1890 and 1891, and had vivid memories of the Wright Bros flight, WW1, Charles Lindberg flying solo across the Atlantic, the Great Depression, the first radios and TV, and so on. What a life!

My ex wife's grandmother is still alive at 102+. When she turned 100, I wanted to get her a t-shirt that said "Still lives with parents". Everyone thought that was hilarious...except the ex..of course.

cleveoh:My great grandfather was born in 1860 & died in 1955. I always think about what an amazing amount of history & technological advances he witnessed in his lifetime.

From muzzle-loaders to hydrogen bombs?

CSB: I had a girlfriend whose mother was adopted by a middle-aged woman who couldn't have kids, hence the adoption. When I knew her in the early '90s, she was 101. Her own grandmother lived until 98, and had been born in 1819. The two, 1819 grandma and 1890s grandma, had been close, and many "old timey" stories had been exchanged.

So, my girlfriend's grandmother's grandmother had a) been born in the same year as Queen Victoria, b) had been born before Napoleon had died, c) had children before the widespread arrival of photography, and d) at the age of 18 had personally witnessed events in Toronto that were part of the 1837 Rebellion, a minor historical event, but one that led to the formation of Canada as an independent country, which happened when grandma's grandma was already middle-aged.

Hence, old people are like time machines. Get an oldie who knew an oldie as a kid, and you can hear at one remove human experiences nudging 200 years old.

mialynneb:CSB: In an old VHS from our '88 Christmas, she was in the background in her blue moo moo pounding a beer. Awesome lady.

Reminds me of the elder granny-in-law I mention up above...she drank a whiskey-sour every evening at 5pm, without fail, from the end of Prohibition in 1933 until shortly before she died in 1990 at 99 years 10 months. The other granny-in-law was a complete teetotaler and died at 99 years 4 months. They were both awesome ladies.

I was born in 1984My parents, 1952, 1954 (one is dead)My grandparents, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1933 (oldest one is alive)My great-grandparents, 1884, 1892, 1901, 1904, 1905, 1905, 1906, 1916. (all died before I was born except for my greatgrandma Fisher (1906-97) I met her once in 1993. She had alzheimers and didn't even understand who we all were. Also the great-grandma who was born in 1916 died in 1940 at the age of 24. I don't know how.

"My mom was not president of the bank or anything, but she was very instrumental in raising a family and being a community person," said Sara Rearden, her youngest child. "Everybody can't go be president of a bank

Fark Rye For Many Whores:"My mom was not president of the bank or anything, but she was very instrumental in raising a family and being a community person," said Sara Rearden, her youngest child. "Everybody can't go be president of a bank

Jon iz teh kewl:EvilEgg: Let me know when the last person born in the 1800s dies. We have got to be getting close.

when that happens, we can stop worrying about the Y2K problem. and go back to 2 digit dates

Uhh...you mean like people who were born in 1913 and people born in 2013?

What?

/will have this problem as long as people live beyond 100.//should make for an interesting plot, everyone over 100 is being killed off. They finally catch the the guy and he turns out to be an IT geek (redundant?) whose last words on being dragged off are "but now we can go back to double digit dates!!"///long-winded slashies